Eurasian Prehistory, 7 (1): 113–127.
NATUFIAN PLANT EXPLOITATION: MANAGING RISK
AND STABILITY IN AN ENVIRONMENT OF CHANGE
Arlene M. Rosen
Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 31-34 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY,
United Kingdom; [email protected]
Abstract
In attempting to understand the environmental background of agricultural origins in the ancient Near East, a number
of scholars have drawn attention to the temporal correlation between the climatic event of the cold/dry Younger Dryas episode (ca. 12,900–11,600 BP), and an apparent shift to intensive cereal collection by Natufian foragers living in the Mediterranean zones of the Southern Levant. However, we have little direct information about Natufian plant use to test and
elaborate these scenarios due the scarcity of charred macrobotanical remains at Natufian sites. An alternative solution is
the analysis of phytoliths which are proving to be abundant in Natufian contexts. This study reports on phytolith analyses
from Early through Final Natufian levels at Eynan (Ain Mallaha), the Late Natufian at Hilazon Tachtit, with comparisons
from Early Natufian deposits at el-Wad. These show heavier use of forest resources in the Early Natufian, with a shift to
significantly more grass-seed exploitation in the Late Natufian. The use of grasses included as much (or more) wild weed
grass seeds as those from wild cereals. The results suggest the Natufians living in the Mediterranean zone of the Southern
Levant indeed changed their plant-use strategies with the onset of the Younger Dryas. Here I argue the Natufians developed a very successful and stable adaptation both to the warmer-wetter conditions of the Bølling/Allerød phase
(ca.14,500–12,900 BP) in the Early Natufian Period, and then again to the Younger Dryas of the Late and Final Natufian
Periods. Seen in this way, the Natufians are an example of a stable and sustainable forager adaption to major climatic fluctuations. Natufian adaptations were so successful, that there was little incentive for a shift to a cultivation economy in the
Southern Levant until well into the Holocene.
Key words: hunter-gatherers, phytoliths, Younger Dryas, agricultural origins, resource ranking, sustainability.
INTRODUCTION
The Natufians occupy a privileged place in
our perception of hunter-gatherer societies. Due
to their perceived positioning at the threshold of
change from complex hunter/gathering to village
farming societies, they are presumed to be the
pivotal turning point on a road to cultivation. The
Natufians also lived at a time in which major climatic changes occurred as the Late Pleistocene
gave way to the conditions that would usher in the
Early Holocene interglacial. This has led to much
innovative research on the role of environmental
change as a stimulus to intensification of cereal
exploitation in the Early to Late Natufian subsistence economies (Bar-Yosef and Belfer-Cohen,
1992; Bar-Yosef, 1996; Bar-Yosef and Belfer-
Cohen, 2002; Goring-Morris and Belfer-Cohen,
1998; Henry, 1989; Hillman, 1996; Moore and
Hillman, 1992). It is clear that Late Pleistocene
climate change played an important role in shifting vegetation communities, but the question is
what changes took place in Natufian plant exploitation, and did these economic shifts really begin
a unique trajectory that eventually led to later
Neolithic farming societies? Although the importance of climate change in Natufian adaptation
strategies was a major contribution to our understanding of these societies, phytolith evidence
from Early and Late Natufian sites suggest that in
the face of profound climatic deterioration, the
Natufians adjusted their plant subsistence economies in ways that are consistent with strategies of
other hunter-gatherer groups living in temperate
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A. M. Rosen
an interesting test case in Pleistocene hunter/gatherer adaptations since we can document significant climatic changes that occurred on the cusp
between the Early and Late Natufian societies and
with increasing information on plant and animal
remains from their sites we can begin to record
which strategies these hunter-gatherer groups
might have employed to better adapt to new climatic conditions. An archaeological record of
plant remains is the key ingredient for our understanding of how Natufians made selective choices
of plant resources. However, macro-botanical remains are largely missing from the archaeological
record. This is the reason why seeking alternative
methods for exploring Natufian plant exploitation
is imperative. The phytolith record therefore can
be a key to supplying much of this missing information.
LATE PLEISTOCENE/EARLY
HOLOCENE CLIMATIC CHANGE
Fig. 1. Map of the Southern Levant showing modern
vegetation zones locations of Natufian sites in this
study
to low rainfall environments. I will propose that
these shifts in resource exploitation strategies did
not ultimately lead to the cultivation of wild cereals among Late and Final Natufian groups, but
rather provided a stable system of plant exploitation that the Natufians were able to manage for
sustainability and consistency rather than change,
and that this system was so successful it remained
stable for well over 1000 years.
It is reasonable to assume that Natufian plant
economies were well attuned to Eastern Mediterranean ecosystems and like other hunter-gatherer
groups around the world they had the resilience to
shift economic strategies relatively rapidly with
natural changes in plant communities within their
geographic range. In fact, the Natufians provide
Today, the Southern Levant consists of three
main geobotanical regions including the Mediterranean Zone characterized by a mix of oak (Quercus calliprinos and Q. ithaburensis), pistachio
(Pistacia palaestina), almond (Amygdalus communis), carob (Ceratonia siliqua) and olive trees
(Olea europaea), the Irano-Turanian Zone that includes steppic grasses and shrubs, and the aridlands of the Saharo-Arabian Zone which is typified by dry-land vegetation such as chenopods
and Artemisia (Zohary and Hopf, 2000) (see Fig.
1). These plant communities are well adapted to
the typical Mediterranean climatic cycles of
cool/moist winters (with average annual temperatures of ca. 12° C), and warm dry summers (average annual temperature equivalent to ca. 26° C).
Average annual rainfall ranges from about 100
mm in the Negev Desert towards the south, to ca.
1000 mm in the Galilee to the north of the region
(Orni and Efrat, 1980). This paper will deal with
material from Natufian sites in what was traditionally considered the “core” region within the
Mediterranean Zone of the Southern Levant. In
addition to the broad geo-botanical categorization
of this zone as an area of Mediterranean forest
vegetation, it also includes a mosaic of smaller
micro-habitats which include patches of marsh resources as well as localities with populations of
Natufian plant exploitation
Fig. 2.
115
Oxygen Isotope curve from Nahal Soreq Cave, after Bar-Matthews et al. (1999)
wild cereals (Triticum dicoccoides,, Hordeum
spontaneum) and weed-grasses (Avena, Bromus,
Aegilops, Hordeum etc.). All of this provides the
means for Natufians living within the Mediterranean zone to alter their strategies of resource selection with the short and long term effects of climatic fluctuations.
The climatic changes from the Late Pleistocene to the Early Holocene are summarized in
more detail elsewhere (Rosen, 2007a). Briefly,
beginning with the Late Glacial Maximum
(LGM) at ca. 23,000 cal BP, the Southern Levant
reached the peak of cool/dry climatic conditions
as seen from the oxygen isotope sequences from
speleothems in Nahal Soreq Cave (Fig. 2)
(Bar-Matthews et al., 1999). This had a major impact on vegetation communities as indicated by
the Hula pollen core (Baruch and Bottema, 1991;
Baruch and Bottema, 1999) (Fig. 3). If we accept
the radiocarbon dates for the Hula core as corrected by Cappers and others (Cappers et al.,
1998; Wright and Thorpe, 2003), the lowermost
portion of the sequence coincides with the end of
the LGM). It shows that vegetation in the Mediterranean Zone was characterized by xeric plants
primarily dominated by chenopods, Artemisia,
and grasses, with much reduced forest vegetation.
Further up in the pollen sequence the “Bølling–
Allerød” phase that coincided with a significant
warming trend and glacial retreat in Europe from
ca. 14,500–12,900 cal. BP, shows the rapid influx
of trees dominated by oak, but also includes olive
and pistachio. This abrupt increase in trees including the very warm/moist loving pistachio, has
caused some researchers to question the dating of
the Hula core, especially in these lower levels.
However, as I have argued elsewhere (Rosen,
2007a), this might be explained by the fact that
116
Fig. 3.
(1998)
A. M. Rosen
Pollen core from Lake Hula after Baruch and Botema (1999), showing dates corrected after Cappers et al.
the refuge for warm-loving plants was very close
to the Hula as opposed to other localities such as
Anatolia where the refuges were more distant, and
forest recovery might have taken thousands of
year longer (Roberts et al., 1999).
This phase of forest expansion also corresponds with the earliest sites identifiable as Natu-
fian (Bar-Yosef, 1996; Valla, 1981, 1998), and
continues throughout most of the Early Natufian
period. The end of the BÝlling–AllerÝd phase
came abruptly at ca. 12,900 cal. BP with the cool/
dry climatic conditions that ushered in the wellknown Younger Dryas climatic episode. With this
Terminal Pleistocene episode of climatic deterio-
Natufian plant exploitation
ration, researchers have noted considerable changes in settlement patterns of the Late Natufian
populations that inhabited the region at this time.
The onset of the Holocene at around 11,700 BP
brought the beginnings of warmer and moister
conditions, however, according to the Nahal
Soreq oxygen isotope determinations, the optimum for warm/wet conditions only occurred at
ca. 10,500 BP.
These climatic fluctuations had a profound
impact on vegetation communities upon which
Natufian populations depended for their livelihood. In order to adapt to them, it is likely that the
shift from Early to Late Natufian societies included a change in plant resource rankings that
corresponded in part to the expansion and contraction of different vegetation communities. This
would be in keeping with the ways that other
hunter/gatherer societies living in semi-arid zones
responded to such transformations in their environment. Pollen cores from Lake Hula (Baruch
and Bottema, 1999) show that the LGM was characterized by steppic vegetation including a mix of
Artemisia, chenopods, and grasses. As the climate
became warmer and moister in the BÝlling/
AllerÝd, Quercus (oak), Olea (olive), Prunus
amygdalus (almond), Ceratonia siliqua (carob)
and Pistacia (pistachio) forest vegetation rapidly
expanded. This typical Mediterranean forest vegetation would have provided an important source
of protein, fats and oils that are found in acorns,
almonds, and pistachio nuts. The carob and olive
also would have been important resources for foragers. The cool dry conditions that set in rather
abruptly with the Younger Dryas led to a rapid decrease in these forest resources, and a corresponding increase in moist steppic vegetation including
an expansion of grasses, presenting the potential
of an expanded resource base for seed exploitation (Bottema, 1995, 2002)1.
Given these environmental and vegetation
shifts, we would expect the Natufians to change
their plant resource exploitation rankings so that
forest products would be of primary importance
in the Early Natufian, but decline in the Late and
Final Natufian in favor of grass seeds. Some aspects of Natufian material culture are consistent
with this interpretation, such as the increase in
grinding stones from the Early to the Late Natufian (Wright, 1994), but we still need a better
117
plant remains record to provide us with the proverbial “smoking gun” that would give us more
precise information on Natufian adaptations.
Therefore, in order to facilitate research into the
question of how environmental changes impacted
Natufian subsistence strategies we need to have
more archaeobotanical data from a large number
of Natufian sites.
The largest Natufian sites such as Eynan (Ain
Mallaha) on the shore of the Hula marsh are significantly bigger than any previous hunter-gatherer sites in the Levant. The sites typically include
semi-circular structures with stone foundations
and superstructures composed of reeds (Rosen,
2004), burials, possible storage installations, and
the remains of grinding stones. Some researchers
have suggested that these characteristics are indications of increasing sedentism with growing
populations supported by increased exploitation
of wild cereals (Olszewski, 1993; Valla, 1998;
Wright, 1994). However, phytolith data shown
below, suggest that rather than intensification in
cereal use leading to domesticated varieties and
true agricultural communities in the PPNA, the
Natufians were exploiting a wide variety of different grass seeds with no particular selection of
cereals.
A comprehensive study of phytoliths from a
number of Natufian sites in the Levant can contribute a great deal to our understanding of Natufian plant exploitation strategies. Here, I report on
some preliminary results from the initial work on
this material, primarily from the site of Eynan in
the vicinity of the Hula marsh, northern Israel,
with comparisons from the Late Natufian site of
Hilazon Tahtit, and results from Early Natufian
levels at el-Wad (prepared and counted by M.
Portillo, this volume). The proveniences of samples from these two sites are shown in Table 1.
Although we are only beginning to increase our
data set, some trends are emerging that may have
implications for major shifts in Natufian adaptations in the Southern Levant.
METHODS
Phytolith processing was conducted in the
Phytolith Laboratory at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. The process of
sample preparation begins with a series of clean-
A. M. Rosen
118
Table 1
Provenience of phytolith samples from Eynan by lab number
(from Rosen in Valla et al., 2004, 2007)
Lab number
EM-01-1
EM-01-2
EM-01-3
EM-01-4
EM-01-5
EM-01-6
EM-01-7
EM-01-8
EM-01-9
EM-01-10
EM-02-1
EM-02-2
EM-02-3
EM-02-4
EM-06-1
EM-06-2
EM-06-3
EM-06-4
EM-06-5
EM-06-6
Sample number
EM 97 6105
EM 98 6918
EM 98 6976
EM 98 7016
EM 99 7250
EM 99 7676
EM 99
EM 99 7170
EM 00 8275
EM 00 8201+8212
EM 96 5150
EM 01 8918
EM 98 6816
EM 01 9021
EM 05 10014
EM 05 10031
EM 05 10130
EM 05 10167
EM 05 9807
EM 05 10133
ing techniques to remove calcium carbonates,
clays, and organic matter. First, we prepare a ca.
800 mg aliquot of fine-grained sediment (< 0.25
mm). We then treat it with 10% HCl to remove
calcium carbonate residues. Then the sediment
aliquot is washed with filtered water, centrifuged,
and decanted two times. A calgon solution (50 gm
Sodium hexametaphosphate/ 1 liter distilled water) of 50 ml is added to the samples to disperse
the clays. The solution of sediment and calgon is
added to a tall beaker and filtered water is added
to a height of 8 cm and stirred vigorously. The
fine-sands and silts are allowed to settle for one
hour and the clays in suspense are poured off.
This is repeated until the suspense is clear and the
clays are removed. The sample is dried and then
burned in a muffle furnace at 500 °C for two
hours to remove the organic matter and micro-charcoal deposits. The remaining sediment is
then added to a 15 ml centrifuge tube, along with
a heavy density solution of Sodium polytungstate
calibrated to a density of 2.3 sp.gr. The solution is
Provenience
Q. 98
J. 92a
J. 92d
J. 92d
J. 98a
R.97c
R.97c
H93d
G97a and G98b
Q96b and Q97c
L99d
G98
K97 a/d
G98c
I97c
K95b
K95a
R97d
Q97b
K98b
Context
Ashy Feature 228
Hearth 224
Hearth 224
Hearth 224
Burnt material in structure 203
Ashy Feature
Structure 228
Structure 227
Structure 202
Ashy Feature 228
Hearth 201
Hearth 235
Hearth 225
Hearth 235
Exterior Hearth Locus 237
Locus 230
Locus 230
Fire Pit
Locus 215
In Mortar Locus 241
agitated then centrifuged at 800 rpm for 10 minutes. The suspense with the phytoliths is poured
into a clean centrifuge tube and washed with distilled water, and centrifuged three times until the
pellet of phytoliths is clean. It is then weighed and
mounted on a slide using Entallen. The phytoliths
are counted at 400× magnification, and absolute
numbers are calculated for each phytolith type by
number per gram sediment. Single cell forms are
counted separately from multi-celled silica sheets.
RESULTS
The phytolith assemblages from Eynan and
Hilazon Tachtit, as well as el-Wad (Portillo et al.,
this volume) are for the most part dominated by
monocotyledons including pooid grasses, common reed (Phragmites sp.), and sedges (Cyperaceae). There are also varying quantities of dicotyledons (woody and herbaceous shrubs and
trees). The results can be divided into assemblages from the single-celled phytoliths which pro-
Natufian plant exploitation
119
vide information on plant parts, and grass subfamilies, and those from the multi-celled phytoliths which can indicate genus and sometimes species (Rosen, 1992, 1999).
Single-cell phytoliths
Grass and sedge phytoliths derived from single epidermal cells include those in the shape of
long-cells, short-cells, bulliforms, trichomes (or
micro-hairs), papillae, and others. These cells can
be good indicators of the plant parts from which
they are derived. The distinctive Elongate Dendritic long-cell phytoliths are significant for this
study since they form in the husk (glume, palea,
and lemma) of the grass which covers the grain,
and as such they are a proxy for grass seeds in the
single-cell phytolith category. This can be compared with the Elongate Psilate (smooth-sided)
long-cells which primarily form in the culm and
leaves of grasses and sedges, and indicate the
shoots rather than seeds of the plant. Phytoliths
formed in woody dicots are often more irregular
with variable morphologies (Albert and Weiner,
2001) (Fig. 4a). It is therefore more difficult to assign them to family or genus than the monocotyledons, although the leaves of dicots are often more
distinctive (Fig. 4b).
Only a few samples from Early Natufian levels at Eynan were available for analysis, but if we
examine the ratios of dicots to monocots, these
tentatively suggest that woody plants were exploited more heavily in the Early Natufian period
and less in the Late Natufian. A comparison of
these results with the dicot/monocot ratios from
el-Wad supports this trend quite strongly, with
consistently high ratios of dicot/monocots at that
site (Fig. 5). This shows that although monocots
are the prevalent type of plant at all three sites, we
can still detect a decrease in the amounts of
woody plants being used from the Early Natufian
through the Late/Final Natufian periods. This
trend is evident at all three of these sites. This tendency would be in keeping with the decline in forests initiated by the onset of cool/dry conditions
with the Younger Dryas as seen in the Hula pollen
diagram (Baruch and Bottema, 1999), and an hypothesis of decline in available tree and forest
resources.
Concentrating on the Gramineae, grass phytolith densities indicate how grasses might have
Fig. 4. Phytoliths from dicotyledons (woody plants)
at Eynan, a) phytoliths from wood, b) phytolith from
the leaf of a dicot, c.f. Quercus sp. (oak). Scale bar = 20
µm
been used at the sites. The small quantities of
grass husks (as indicated by low numbers of
dendritics) in the Early Natufian tentatively suggest that they may not have been heavily exploited for their seeds, but rather for more general
uses. In contrast, the Late Natufian samples show
120
A. M. Rosen
Fig. 5. Frequencies of woody plants versus grasses at Early Natufian and Late Natufian Eynan, Late Natufian
Hilazon Tachtit and Early Natufian el-Wad as indicated by the ratio of dicot to monocot phytoliths
there are larger quantities of grass husks from the
site of Eynan and Hilazon Tachtit, than there were
in the few Early Natufian samples at Eynan, and
the larger number of Early Natufian samples at
el-Wad, suggesting more intensive use of grass
seeds in the later periods (Fig. 6). These quantities
can be compared to the phytolith results from the
PPNA site of Dhra on the east side of the Jordan
Rift Valley which show significantly larger quantities of grass-seeds being exploited (Fig 7) (Jenkins and Rosen, n.d.; Kuijt and Finlayson, 2009).
Multi-cell phytoliths
There are a number of different multi-cell
phytolith types at Eynan and Hilazon Tachtit, but
some of the most informative trends come from
the densities of wild weed grasses, wild emmer
wheat (Fig. 8), and wild barley, as well as the dicots or woody plants. Although we commonly assume that Late/Final Natufians were primarily targeting wild cereals, the phytolith data suggest
they were exploiting numerous kinds of wild
weed grasses even more than wheat and barley.
Figure 9 shows there are high densities of wild
grass husks concentrated at specific localities at
Eynan that indicate the wild grass seeds were collected, separated, prepared and consumed in the
same way that wild cereals were consumed, and
even appear in larger quantities than wild cereals
suggesting that these smaller-seeded grasses were
just as important, or perhaps even more so than
the wild cereals in Late Natufian levels at both
Eynan and Hilazon Tachtit. It is worth noting that
there were very few multi-cell grass phytolith
forms from Early Natufian levels at both Eynan
and el-Wad.
DISCUSSION
Thus far, the preliminary phytolith data seem
to support the concept of changing Natufian plant
economies with shifting environments from the
BÝlling–AllerÝd through the Younger Dryas.
This is in keeping with the way many hunter-gatherer societies adjust their resource ranking in response to abrupt climatic change (Haberle and
Natufian plant exploitation
121
Fig. 6. Increasing frequencies of grass-husks from the Early to Late/Final Natufian Periods as indicated by numbers of elongate dendritics (long-cells from husks). These are a proxy for grass seeds
David, 2004; Kennett and Kennett, 2000; Meltzer, 1999). However, we need to ask if there was
something unique in the Natufian adaptation to
this change which might have led them on an irreversible path to cultivation, or alternatively, as argued here, was the Natufian adaptation of collecting wild grasses, a stable sustainable system that
reached a kind of steady state of equilibrium with
the environmental setting that required no transformation to actual planting and cultivation of
wild cereals?
It’s informative to compare Natufian plant
exploitation strategies with other hunter/gatherers
who were faced with similar situations of abrupt
climate change. Human Behavioral Ecologists
have suggested a number of ways in which
hunter/gatherers typically respond to adverse environmental change in order to manage the risk
versus desirability of subsistence resources. They
have identified several recurrent principles that
are useful to consider in the case of the Natufians.
The concepts of “resource choice” and “risk
minimization” used in HBE models are helpful
when considering possible responses to climate
change on the part of the Natufians. Foragers will
commonly opt for smoothing over episodes of
booms and busts by selecting resources with
lower mean payoffs, but greater stability. They
will tend to concentrate on foods that are readily
attainable and dependable, thus minimizing risks,
even if these foods are normally considered famine foods (Kennett and Winterhalder, 2006; Low,
1990; Minnis, 1985).
Ethnohistoric hunter-gatherer studies around
the world contrast the exploitation of nuts and
acorns with that of grass seeds. Many foragers
will rank nuts higher than seeds due to their high
nutritional value, their ease of collection and processing, and the lack of a need for complex tool
kits for their exploitation (Keeley, 1992; Lee,
1979; Mason, 1995). In contrast, grass seeds are
given a lower ranking since they require more en-
122
Fig. 7.
A. M. Rosen
Comparison of low Natufian husk/stem ratios with higher ratios from PPNA Dhra in the Jordan Valley
Fig. 8. Multi-cell phytoliths from the husks of wheat
(Triticum sp.), from Late Natufian Eynan. Scale bar =
10 µm
ergy to collect and process, and often involve specialized toolkits such as grinding stones, beaters
and baskets. Researchers have looked for a
change in environmental conditions as an explanation for a hunter-gatherer group switching their
emphasis from a high-ranked plant resource such
as nuts or acorns, to a low ranked one such as
grass seeds.
A number of such case studies are analogous
to the situation faced by Natufians during times of
abrupt environmental change (Table 2). During
such episodes, many hunter-gatherers will turn to
more predictable resources, and a strategy of diversification, even if these resources require more
effort to collect, and specialized tool kits for collecting and processing. Such was the case when
ancient Californians were faced with environmental changes from warm moist to cool dry conditions ca. 500–1300 CE (Kennett and Kennett,
2000). This was accompanied by a decrease in
terrestrial resource use, but a flourishing of ma-
Natufian plant exploitation
123
Fig. 9. Frequencies (in number per gram sediment) of multi-cell phytoliths from wheat (Triticum sp.), barley
(Hordeum sp.), and wild weed grasses at Eynan (Early-Late/Final Natufian) and Hilazon Tachtit (Late Natufian)
rine resource exploitation. In the case of these
Late Holocene Californians, strategies shifted
away from the parkland environments, towards
the more predictable marine environments, although these required technological specializations and a greater output of labor. Likewise,
studies from Cape York in Northern Australia
show similar trends (Haberle and David, 2004).
Here, climatic proxies indicate decreasing rainfall
levels and increasingly open vegetation after 3500
cal. BP. The apparent response to these environmental changes by local hunter-gatherers was a
decrease in group size, an increase in territoriality
as manifested in the regionalization of rock-art
styles after this time period, more intensive use of
plants within smaller ranges, an increase in the
exploitation of grassland areas, accompanied by
more seed-grinding stones, and consumption of
new species including toxic plants.
A similar situation is reported from the North
American Great Plains when drying climatic conditions set in during the Middle Holocene (Mel-
tzer, 1999). With a reduction in water sources, bison populations decreased and water sources became more limited. Responses on the part of hunter-gatherer groups varied, but some similarities
included greater selection of lower-ranked/
higher-cost resources such as grass-seeds, and
new technologies for exploiting and processing
these grass-seeds, including grinding stones, earth
ovens and storage pits.
Thus research into general hunter-gatherer
foraging strategies suggests that grass seeds are
often a lower-ranked resource than nuts, and
when given the opportunity, nuts or other protein
rich resources will take precedence over the exploitation of seeds (Barlow and Heck, 2002). The
use of grass seeds and other plants with high processing costs will tend to increase when environmental conditions or population increases reduce
the availability of nuts (Keeley, 1992).
This common hunter-gatherer strategy for
managing risk seems very relevant to Natufian
adaptations throughout the BÝlling–AllerÝd war-
A. M. Rosen
124
Table 2
Case studies of hunter-gatherer adaptations to environmental change (after Rosen 2007a)
Case study
Environmental changes
Californians1
Warm moist to cool dry;
increase in marine resources; decrease in terrestrial resources; less water
available
N. Australia2
North American3 Plains
Changes in resource choice Settlement changes
Increased use of more predictable resources: use of
more marine and less terrestrial; diversification acquired
through trade rather than mobility
Broader subsistence base more diverse resources used
Decreasing rainfall; greater
in smaller area; labor-intensteppic vegetation
sive seed grinding and use of
toxic plants
Increase in lower-ranked/
Drying conditions; fewer
higher-cost resources; new
water sources; reduction in
food-processing technologies
primary resource: bison; insuch as grinding stones for
crease in grasslands
grasses
Use of forest resources such
as acorn and pistachio4
Early Natufians Warming and moist; in(primary?); and grass seeds
(ca.14,500creasing forests, including
(secondary?); lower subsis13,000 cal. BP) Pistachia and Quercus
tence risks5; possible storage
in baskets4
Intergroup interactions
Increase in compeIncreased sedentism to claim tition and hostility,
good fishing areas and fresh but also increasing
water sources
cooperation and
trade
Breaking up into smaller
groups; greater territoriality
Increase in
territoriality
Relocation to permanent water sources; more permanent
settlement; fewer sites; more
evidence for storage
Increase in population in the
Mediterranean zone; increasing sedentism and relatively
large hamlets; architectural
innovations; more sickles;
more groundstone; more diverse toolkit; art
Restricted territorial
ranges; well-developed exchange
networks5
Possible decrease in forest
resources such as pistachio
and acorn; increase in grind- Decrease in sedentism and
Increase in
Late/Final
Drying climate with Youning stones and sickles for
dispersal of smaller popula- territoriality; trade
NatufiansLate: ger Dryas; decrease in forharvesting in grasses; burn- tion groups; toolkits still in- from the south as
(ca. 13,000est, increase in grassland6,
ing of land to maintain grass- clude sickles and an increase well as the Mediter11,600 cal. BP) 7
lands? possible storage of
in groundstone mortars8
ranean9
seeds? increase in water
fowl, depletion of gazelle
1
(Kennett and Kennett, 2000); 2 (Haberle and David, 2004); 3 (Meltzer, 1999); 4 (Bar-Yosef and Belfer-Cohen, 1992); 5 (Goring-Morris and Belfer-Cohen, 1998); 6 (Baruch and Bottema, 1991); 7 (Bottema, 2002); 8 (Wright, 1994); 9 (Bar-Yosef and
Belfer-Cohen, 1991)
ming in the Early Natufian and the Younger
Dryas climatic deterioration in the Late Natufian.
So far, the phytolith samples from Early Natufian
el-Wad and Eynan, and the Late Natufian levels at
Eynan and Hilazon Tachtit are in keeping with the
patterns predicted by these Human Behavioral
Ecological models. The fact that there was an increasing emphasis on grass seeds from the Early
Natufian to the Late Natufian has been suggested
by numerous researchers (Bar-Yosef and BelferCohen, 1991; Bar-Yosef, 2002; Henry, 1989;
Hillman, 1996; Wright, 1994) based on increasing numbers of grinding stones from Early
through Late Natufian. The preliminary phytolith
data appears to support these other data sets.
However, it does not appear that the Natufians
were specifically targeting wild cereals nor were
they headed for an agricultural lifestyle. The
phytolith evidence from Eynan and Hilazon
Tachtit shows that cereals were only a portion of
the wild grasses exploited by the Natufians. In
keeping with other hunter/gatherers under stress,
it is likely that the significant Natufian adaptation
was to grass seeds in general, and not exclusively
to cereals (Rosen, 2007b). This would preclude
models of “self-domestication” of cereals and
conscious human selection for the stiff rachis in
wild wheat, both of which would support direc-
Natufian plant exploitation
tional changes leading Natufian foragers from
collection of wheat in the wild, to cultivation of
wild wheat and onward towards eventual farming
of domestic varieties of wheat in the Pre-Pottery
Neolithic (PPN). These models may be applicable
for populations in the PPN, but given the evidence
for Natufian collection of a wide variety of grass
genera, without privileging wild cereals, these
scenarios seem less applicable to the Natufians.
125
“Direct and indirect evidence of plant exploitation during the Natufian”. Thanks are due also to François
Valla for generously providing samples from Eynan,
Leore Grosman for allowing me to examine sediments
from Hilazon Tachtit, and Mina Weinstein-Evron for
initiating a program of systematic phytolith sampling at
el-Wad. Many thanks to Marta Portillo for tirelessly
processing, counting and analyzing the samples from
el-Wad in the course of her post-doctoral fellowship at
the Institute of Archaeology, UCL. I also very much
appreciate conversations and commentary on earlier
drafts of this work from Ofer Bar-Yosef.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
Although the Natufians seem to have followed a strategy of changing resource ranking
with changing environmental regimes, this alone
was not enough to set them on the path to agriculture. In fact, small and large grass-seed exploitation seems to have been such a successful adaptation to the Younger Dryas cool dry environment
that it continued to persist for about 1500 years.
Thus I suggest that the Younger Dryas climate
change was not a forcing mechanism for the development of agriculture, rather a shift that required a move to a new foraging equilibrium on
the part of the Natufians.
The Late UP or Early Epipaleolithic inhabitants of Ohalo II are a good analogy for Late
Natufians in the Mediterranean Core Zone. Like
the Natufians, they had to deal with a very harsh
cool/dry climate. It is well-understood that the
Ohalo II populations also exploited grass seeds
intensively from a wide variety of different grass
genera (Kislev et al., 1992; Piperno et al., 2004).
According to the HBE model, this would have
been a very successful strategy for a period of
time which was characterized by reduced forest
resources, and dominated by steppic vegetation.
If the Natufian response to climate change
was not unique, but rather along the lines of normative hunter/gatherer reactions to climate
change, then we would have to look for agricultural origins in the Holocene, most likely as a result of both social ‘push’ and climatic ‘pull’ factors resulting from growing populations and
climatic ameliorations reducing the risk involved
in farming.
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude to Laure
Dubreuil who initially conceived of the seminar on
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Notes
1. It is important to reiterate that this scenario of Late
Pleistocene vegetation changes is based on the original radiocarbon dates from the Hula core which
were corrected by Cappers et al. (1998). Meadows’
readjustment places the lowermost portion of the
core at the Younger Dryas, thus excluding the time
period of the Bølling/Allerød, and a new readjustment of dates by van Zeist and Baruch (2009) would
push it even younger so that the whole core only
covers the Holocene. My rationale for sticking with
the Cappers date corrections is outlined in Rosen
(2007a), since these seem to also be consistent with
more recent cores in the Ghab valley of northern
Syria . Until there are new dates or some general
consensus of which correction is most reasonable, I
will use the Cappers et al. correction.